Hey Lily
by Happiness is A Virtue
Summary: This is set after the end of my Almost Perfect fic, there is a brief summary in the beginning so you don't have to go read it. James goes to the graveyard the morning after Harry's sorting to talk to Lily.


Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter.

 **A/N** This is a random idea I had a while ago and finally got around to writing. It ties in with my 'Almost Perfect' fic. If you're confused you could go read it, but I really don't recommend it. I wrote in high school and have since graduated college… (The writing quality is bad guys.)

So, here is a quick summary so this story makes a little more sense: James Potter never died, he spends years as a muggle before his memories return. Upon regaining his memories, he rushes off to Hogwarts, & learns that Sirius killed Peter and several muggles seven years ago and has just escaped Azkaban and kidnapped Harry. Only Sirius hasn't kidnapped Harry. After visiting Arabella Figg and seeing Harry, Remus decides to take Harry to live with him. After a few months of the wizarding world searching for Harry, Remus learns that Sirius has been cleared of all charges. He brings Harry to Hogwarts & finds Sirius and James. While they are there Harry takes an instant liking to a certain acerbic professor.

Other important tidbits from the Almost Perfect 'world' that will help make this fic make more sense: In the hunt for Harry the Malfoys were arrested & Draco is being raised by Andromeda. Draco is friends with not only Harry, but Ron and Neville as well. Harry meets Hermione briefly before school when James' muggle friends bring her to Harry's 'muggles only' 11th birthday party.

That should be it so, without further author interruption, on with the fic.

* * *

"Hey Lily." James said lowering himself down to sit in the grass next to his wife's grave. He kept talking to distract himself as he settled in. "Harry is off to Hogwarts for the first time this year. Sirius is already bored to tears without him. We had a few surprises when we dropped Harry off to catch the train. There was a muggle girl, Hermione Granger, who came to Harry's eleventh birthday party with the muggle friends I lived with for a while. Well, she ended up being a witch. She was so excited to see Harry again she ran up and hugged him in the middle of the platform. I've never seen our son turn so red before. Even Remus couldn't hold in his laughter."

James ran his hands through the grass next to him; it was just starting to get damp from the morning dew. He finally forced himself to look over at the gravestone. He noticed his name was still there with hers, only his death date had been scrubbed away. He reached out, fingertips brushing the engraved letters of Lily's name and smiled sadly.

He sat back, dropping his hand back to the grass. "The second surprise, and Lily, I almost fainted from shock, _your sister_ on the platform. She was seeing your nephew off for his first year at Hogwarts. After all you told me about your sister I'm surprised she even let him go; Harry, however, wasted no time making his cousin feel welcome."

James sat in silence for a while, struggling to put together what he wanted to say.

"The past three years have been crazy, Lily. I know I've come by to visit a few times but I never really stayed to talk. Mostly because I'm sure everyone would worry if came out here and stayed for hours. Thankfully, Padfoot was always a heavy sleeper, so I've managed to steal some time tonight."

James sighed this was never going to be easy, but he needed to do it. He wouldn't feel better until he got this off his chest. Words he'd held in since he'd regained his memories, meant only for someone who was no longer alive to hear them. "I figure I ought to get this said, then I can go on telling you all about our son…" His voice faltered and he gulped down the knot in his throat, "I know how you felt about changing secret keepers. I trusted the wrong person, Lily, and I'm sorry." he trailed off rubbing his hands over his face the words spilling out of him were doing nothing for the aching in his chest.

"You should be here, Lily. You should have seen Harry off to Hogwarts for the first time yesterday. I shouldn't be sitting at your graveside before sunrise telling you about it."

He sat silently letting the air chill him as the wind blew lightly through the graveyard. "Honestly there are days when I wish you were here instead of me because you'd know exactly what to do..."

James let go the few tears he'd been holding back he let them fall freely for a while before wiping the rest away. He sighed again. "But, I came here to tell you about Harry and I don't need tears for that."

He smiled as his thoughts returned to Harry. "One of our son's favorite people is your old best friend you know. And I'm willing to admit you were right, Severus isn't really that bad once you get to know him. Getting Sirius to admit that he doesn't hate the man anymore is still impossible, but they get along for Harry's sake at least."

James paused to listen to the few birds that were already up and chirping. The sky was lightening to a friendlier shade of gray with a tinge of orange on the horizon. "You'll also be relieved to know that however much he looks like me, he doesn't act like it. I've decided that's a good thing. I'm also happy to admit that I didn't feel anything but pride when Severus dropped by after the sorting and informed us that Harry had been sorted into his house."

A small grin broke out on his face, remembering how disappointed Sirius had been, his oldest friend had deflated faster than a popped balloon. "Sirius was …less than excited. I'm sure Severus suffered some mild disappointment as well with Draco going to Ravenclaw. Harry's other friends, Alice and Frank's boy, Neville, went to Gryffindor, Ron Weasley and Dudley, your nephew, ended up in Hufflepuff together."

"Of course Sirius' attitude immediately perked back up when he realized Harry already had friends in all the houses. He's decided that Harry and his friends are going to promote house unity, 'dragging all the pure blooded idiots into the future whether they like it or not.'" James shook his head, attempting to clear a few wild strands of hair from his face.

"Harry is definitely better off than we were when we started at Hogwarts. Remus and I have told him since he learned about the different houses that it didn't matter what house he and his friends were in. We've also told them that they're still allowed to be friends no matter their house and their friendship is strong enough they'll survive being in all different houses."

"Severus said his sorting hasn't done anything to damper his enthusiasm for his classes. Seeing how excited Harry was to go off to school reminded me of you, Lily. He was up before the sun was the day we took him to get his school things. We saw some of the professors on the way to Gringotts, including the new defense against the dark arts teacher…"

He paused here scowling at the memory. "I don't like the man. Sirius thinks he is a joke because the man can't seem to get a sentence out without stuttering. But he feels off somehow, both Remus and Sirius think I'm being paranoid. Severus has agreed to keep an eye on the man; if only because he doesn't want me following Hogwarts' newest professor under my invisibility cloak the whole year."

James yawned and looked up at the rapidly lightning sky. He'd have to leave soon. If he was being truthful with himself he hadn't thought he'd stay this long. But once he started talking the words just flowed out. "The rest of the day went strangely after meeting the new defense professor. Ollivander made some fuss about Harry's wand being Voldemort's brother wand. Harry didn't care, he looked the old man right in the eyes and told him that just meant he'd have to do one good deed with his wand for every bad one that Voldemort had done with his. He's kind of amazing our son, a trait I'm convinced he received from his mother."

His mind drifted back to the moment in Ollivander's shop. He'd been ready to hex the man for bringing Voldemort up at all and for even letting Harry try the wand out. Sirius had looked ready to pummel the man as well. Then Harry had showed the room full of adults who was the most mature among them.

He'd been so proud of Harry then and he was sure Sirius was too if the fact that the man had offered to treat everyone to ice cream afterwards, including Snape who they'd run into as he was coming out of Flourish and Blotts, was any indication. The run in with Hagrid after that had been just as strange as Sirius offering to by Snape ice cream. At some point he got lost in the memories of the day and stopped talking.

Before he realized it the sky was more yellows, oranges and pinks than grey. James stood up and stretched before reaching down and to brush some of the morning's dew off the top of the gravestone.

"Well," he said, "The sun is up and if I don't head back soon Sirius will wake up and notice I was off somewhere and I don't want him following me around for the next few months trying to figure out where. I'll be back later. I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell you when Harry starts sending letters home."

Before leaving he pulled out his wand and conjured a few flowers to leave behind, lilies of course, even though he knew she'd be annoyed with the flower choice. He'd spent seven long years at Hogwarts annoying her, and a few more after so he figured there was no point in stopping the tradition now. He allowed himself a small smile imagining the face his wife would have made if she had seen the flowers he'd placed on her grave.

"Later, Lily." He whispered before turning and vanishing with a small pop.

* * *

I read through this seven times so if there are any mistakes left let me know & I'll fix them. This is the end… for now. I've not decided if I'm going to write more on this one or not I'm leaning towards yes so I won't mark this as complete yet. Hope you enjoyed reading this. :)


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